The new Snapdragon S4 Krait chip from Qualcomm is already a big success for the company. In many benchmarks the hyper-efficient dual-core chip can actually outperform NVIDIA's Tegra 3 chip, and it doesn't have the same issues with LTE that the Tegra 3 has. For this reason, it is already showing up in multiple devices, including the new U.S. version of the flagship from HTC, The One X. In fact, things are going almost too good for Qualcomm when it comes to this chip. According to a recent earnings call from the company, their supply might be outstripped by the demand for the chip, at least until the end of the year.

Their supply problems are primarily due to the fact that the new .28mm manufacturing process is so new that it will take a bit longer to ramp up production. Also, the company admits that it underestimated demand for the new tech. Here's a quote with a few more details,

While this probably won't impact S4 devices currently on the market, or about to go on sale, it may cause OEMs to think twice about using the chips in devices due to come to market later in the year, particularly where LTE connectivity isn't essential. In the mobile device space, Qualcomm faces competition from the likes of NVIDIA, Texas Instruments and Samsung, not to mention Intel later in the year.

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The company didn't seem too disturbed by it, and in fact were prepared for this possibility. This is not uncommon because this is a typical problem when a chip designer upgrades to a new semiconductor design. Qualcomm's chief operating officer, Steve Mollenkopf, said "In any constrained environment, people look for any alternative they can in order to solve the problem. We've been helping customers to see how they can swap in our Fusion 2 chipset... [but] we do expect to see some alternative non-Qualcomm chipsets used to solve that issue as well."

I suppose being one of the most popular kids on the block is a pretty good problem to have...

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